Rajasthan Assembly Election 2018: Leading the BJP campaign in Rajasthan on the second consecutive day on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also addressed public meetings at Baneshwar Dham in Dungarpur district and in Kota. Assembly polls will be held in the state on December 7.

PM Narendra Modi speaks at the public meeting in Kota on Monday, November 27, 2018. The prime minister was campaigning for the BJP in the Rajasthan assembly election . (AH Zaidi / HT Photo)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that the BJP-led NDA government’s performance on development was better compared to 50 years of the Congress rule at the Centre. Throwing a development challenge to the Congress at a public meeting in Bhilwara, Modi said, “When the work of four generations of ‘naamdar’ is compared to that of four years of ‘chaiwala’, it creates a lot of problem for the Congress and they start abusing. So people have to choose between ‘naamdar’ (dynast) and ‘kaamdar’ (who works).”

Leading the BJP campaign in Rajasthan on the second consecutive day, Modi also addressed public meetings at Baneshwar Dham in Dungarpur district and in Kota. Assembly polls will be held in the state on December 7.

The PM said the Congress was indifferent to water crisis in Bhilwara. “It was Vasundhara who took this work in her hands and worked to solve the water crisis. When there is no water, mothers and sisters face a lot of problem and a woman chief minister can understand this problem much better than anyone else.”

He said work on three super expressways with an expenditure of Rs 70,000 crore was underway, which would take the state to a new height of development.

“For so many years after independence, the Congress did not remember tribals till Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government was formed. Tribals were demanding a separate ministry and schemes for their development, but the Congress was not worried about them.”

At an election rally in Kota, Modi said the power of people’s vote helped him become the prime minister. The PM said he started probe into schemes of the former government, which led to detection of fake beneficiaries of the widow pension scheme, student scholarships, ration cards, and subsidies.

“Around six crore names were detected in such schemes who were not born but recorded in government documents. So Rs 90,000 crore of public money was saved from going into the hands of looters.”

Attacking former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the UPA government, Modi said, “There was a remote-control government under which broadband connectivity was given to only 59 villages in the country. Our government has taken broadband connectivity to 1 lakh villages in the last 4 years.”

At Baneshwar Dham, he said, “Did you ever hear that I took a holiday? Did you ever hear I went somewhere for leisure or was missing for a week? I give an account of each and every decision I take and of work that I do, but Rahul Gandhi remained on leave for 60 days and even remained absent in the parliament session.”

He said, “The opposition asks about my work. If they come to your place, ask for the account of last 60 years of their regime. I am ready to give every detail about my work.”

Accusing the Congress of encouraging casteism, Modi said, “They are asking what is Modi’s caste, who is Modi’s father. Yes Modi was not born with a golden spoon; he has seen his mother cooking food on firewood so he has provided LPG connections to around 90% households in the country.”

Click here to see the winning candidates in 2013 Rajasthan Assembly elections

Reacting to Modi’s statements, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Satyendra Raghav said, “Modi is talking of development done by his government, but if he sees today’s newspaper in which a photo on BJP candidate from Tonk Yunus Khan making roti on chulha, he will know how much development has taken place.”

Kota district Congress committee president said, “Modi knows coining slogans. Everyone knows what Congress has done for the country through building dams for agricultural prosperity and power generation, industrialisation, education, preparations for nuclear bomb and so on.”